Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

Robert McKee

All stories begin with ideas. The best ideas often tell a story. Today's social media culture thrives on storytelling – incorporating visual, written and oral traditions. Telling an effective story requires an understanding of what makes up a good story. Being well read. Even being familiar with the oral traditions with which storytelling first began. They all inform a modern storyteller's framework for crafting an effective and good story.

The filmmaking process taught me that I need to be authentic—in my scripts and in real life.

John Grooters

Videos will represent 84% of all internet traffic by the year 2018 according to a new Cisco study (Reuters). Today's generation is drawn to visual storytelling and video is the modern storyteller's tool of choice. The days of simply tossing a video up on the web are gone. Our video savvy culture hungers for more complex variations within visual storytelling. Good ideas with relevant storytelling through effective filmmaking are key.

What pen can describe this scene of marvellous horror; what pencil can portray it?

Jules Verne

Even in today's visually dominated culture, the written word remains foundational. Blogs. Texting. Twitter. Status updates. Even scriptwriting remains important to developing a strong video, film or other visual story. But clearly writing has changed. In an age of shortened attention spans where reading headlines has replaced reading the actual article writing effectively and efficiently has perhaps never been more important.